


I Know

by joeyjames (lilyandjoey)



Series: Tonks/Hermione 7 Spells [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-06-21
Updated: 2006-06-21
Packaged: 2017-10-15 20:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/164641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilyandjoey/pseuds/joeyjames
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tonks finds she has nothing to fear after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Know

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** if you wanted honesty

Hermione walked into the small room at 12 Grimmauld Place that she called her own. It was nothing like her room at her parents’ house which had remained unchanged since she had first left for Hogwarts, aged almost twelve, six years ago. Her mother had wanted everything to be just the way her only daughter left it. Hermione didn’t see the point in redecorating. She never stayed in that room long enough for it to be worth the time and effort. Her room wasn’t like the one she shared with Lavender and Parvati at Hogwarts either, with its three four-poster beds and Gryffindor colours.

This room was just a drab box-room, with walls turned white to grey with time and age. The carpet was threadbare and worn. The only furniture in the room was a single bed with Hermione’s own white sheets and a small wooden table with a badly repaired leg. Her school trunk sat at the foot of the bed, open and filled with books and clothes. The tiny window faced onto the back garden, gone wild from neglect, and the curtains didn’t quite meet, so Hermione was woken with the dawn every morning.

The room wasn’t quite as empty as she had anticipated. She lit the lamp and turned to address the small figure sat hunched on her bed.

“Why were you sitting in the dark?” she asked gently.

Tonks looked up at her, peering through a curtain of long black hair so unlike her usual short, vibrant choices. Her face was pale and she blinked in the lamplight, muted as it was. Hermione thought she looked as though she had been crying.

“Dora? What’s wrong? What’s going on?” Hermione asked, less patient now.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?” Tonks asked cryptically.

Hermione sighed and walked over to the window. She looked out into the darkened garden, the weeds which looked messy in daylight taking on a more sinister air as evening fell. She turned back abruptly to look at the small, dishevelled woman on her bed. She wasn’t really sure what Tonks was talking about. It was disconcerting seeing her like this. Nymphadora Tonks was usually bright and bubbly and bumbling, life and soul of the party. She had never gone in for melodrama before, and while Hermione was relieved that nothing bad had happened she wasn’t sure how to deal with the situation.

“What exactly do you think I want, Dora?” she asked as calmly as possible.

Tonks was still looking at her from behind her hair. Dressed all in black with that hair she looked like a Goth. Her face was a little different than normal too: darker eyes, paler skin, and her features were more like … Sirius. So that’s what all this was about.

“You think I want to know what you really look like,” Hermione stated flatly.

Tonks looked a little taken aback.

“You didn’t? That isn’t what you meant? They always want to know that, to see the real me.”

Hermione sighed and walked over to the bed. She sat down next to Tonks and pulled her close. Tonks lay with her head in Hermione’s lap while Hermione stroked her hair back off her face.

“I know the real you, Dora. Have I ever not known it was you? Young or old, black or white, tall or short, I always know you. The face you usually wear is who you are. It’s how you want to be that’s important, not what you were born with,” she placed a hand over Tonks’ mouth to stifle the interruption on her lips, “And yes, you are a Black, I’ve always known that, seeing it doesn’t make any difference to me.”

“How do you always know what to say?” Tonks asked incredulously.

“I told you, Dora, I know you.”


End file.
